Pearl: Sweet Western Historical Romance (Walker Creek Brides Book 4) Page 5

“Yes, but she was so worried about you, not wanting to leave until Mr. McMaster insisted upon it—we all insisted upon it. My husband examined her first and she’s healed up well, but she needs to take care with her leg so no problems arise. The leather apparatus that holds her stump is padded, but she must take care not to overdo. She doesn’t need any abrasions that might lead to infection. Of course you understand, being a doctor yourself—”

  “Pearl told you I was a doctor?” Stunned, Daniel wished now that he hadn’t revealed so much to her, but how could he not be truthful when staring into her trusting gaze? When Molly nodded and sighed softly, he realized with a sinking feeling that Pearl must have told them more about him.

  “I’m so sorry about your sister, Daniel—forgive me, may I call you by your given name? You look to be the age of my son, Seth, so the other sounds so formal. He’s twenty-five.”

  “Twenty-six, and yes, Daniel’s fine.” His jaw grown tight at the mere mention of his sister, he looked away. “It’s not something I wish to talk about.”

  “I understand, but talking about what happened is the one thing that might help you. I’m sure Charles will want to visit with you tomorrow. I worry about him. He’s so overworked and his health is suffering because of it. We could use another physician in town if you might consider—”

  “I’ll never work as a physician again!” Daniel met Molly’s hazel eyes and saw her surprise that he’d raised his voice, but also compassion that made him regret lashing out at her. “Please, I’d like to go back to sleep. I’ll be leaving town first thing in the morning.”

  “Leaving? How can you? With bruised ribs and that blow you took to your head, you need to lie quietly for at least a couple days. Surely you learned that in medical school, or perhaps it’s not true at all that you’re a doctor—”

  “Vanderbilt University in Nashville,” Daniel broke in, knowing full well she’d goaded him, however gently. His tone, however, had grown bitter. “Class of 1886, though I wish to God I’d never earned that diploma for the conceited, overconfident fool I became at my sister’s expense! How could I ever inflict my so-called medical knowledge on anyone else after such an unforgiveable offense? The look in my brother-in-law’s eyes when he realized she was dead haunts me day and night—no, no more!”

  Now Daniel tried to rise, his thought to leave the infirmary that very moment, but the teeth-clenching pain emanating from his left rib cage made him fall back onto the mattress, groaning. Molly, standing over him, looked stricken.

  “Forgive me, Daniel, I shouldn’t have pressed you. Lie still, please. May I give you another dose of laudanum?”

  He nodded, knowing the tincture of opium would render him senseless for hours, but that’s exactly what he wanted.

  Oblivion.

  No thinking.

  No regretting.

  No hating himself even more than when Mariah had died, the time he’d spent as a drifter doing little to ease the black emotion festering like a disease inside of him.

  Molly helped him to lift his head again and he drank down the bitter-tasting laudanum mixed with water, every last drop.

  Chapter 6

  “Molly said you’re determined to leave us, Mr. Grant. You must forgive me. She let me sleep through the entire night, though I told her to wake me earlier so I might check on you.”

  “No need, I’m fine,” Daniel said, recognizing Charles Davis’s voice as the man walked up behind him. He flinched as he buttoned the clean shirt Molly had laid out for him next to a breakfast tray, nothing left to don except his boots and his coat.

  Thankfully, the worst of the pain from being kicked in the ribs seemed to have subsided. His aching head was another matter, although that discomfort wasn’t enough to make him remain at the infirmary any longer. He turned to face the doctor. “Yes, I plan to catch the next train out of Walker Creek—Dr. Davis?”

  Charles’s face ashen, Daniel grabbed the man’s arm when he seemed to stumble.

  “Please…just help me over to that chair.”

  Daniel obliged him, grimacing at the pain radiating across his ribs as he supported much of the physician’s weight. They both groaned with relief once Charles was seated, the man pulling out a handkerchief from his vest pocket to mop the sheen of perspiration from his forehead.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Grant…that was the last thing you needed. I’ve been so exhausted of late.”

  “So your wife told me,” Daniel said, the doctor nodding in agreement.

  “Molly’s been asking me for some time to slow down, but how can I? The nearest town with another doctor is twenty miles away—but please, young man, don’t think I staged a little show for your benefit to encourage you to stay. It’s a terrible thing to lose a patient, whether someone close to you or not, I understand fully. I’ve almost walked away from practicing medicine a time or two myself—oh, dear, I can’t catch my breath.”

  Daniel didn’t wait to hear more, but hoisted the doctor to his feet and half carried him to the nearest bed in spite of the throbbing in his head. He grunted in pain as he bent over to lift the doctor’s legs onto the mattress, and then he at once focused on loosening Charles’s collar and checking his pulse.

  “Racing?” came the doctor’s weak query.

  Daniel nodded. “You’re perspiring heavily. Do you feel clammy?”

  “Yes.”

  “Any pain in your arms? Your chest?”

  “The middle of my chest.”

  “Nausea?”

  “Yes, yes, a bit.”

  “Has anyone diagnosed you with angina pectoris, Dr. Davis?”

  Again, a nod. “A colleague in San Antonio…but it always passes—”

  “After you’ve taken a dose of nitroglycerine. Where will I find it?”

  Dr. Davis patted his vest pocket, his eyes widening. He inclined his head at a tall cabinet near the front of the infirmary and Daniel didn’t waste any time.

  Ignoring his own discomfort, he ran to the cabinet and flung open the doors; thankfully the bottles and vials were arranged in alphabetical order. He grabbed a dark brown bottle with the correct label and rushed back to the bed.

  “Two drops? Three?”

  “Two. Hurry, please…”

  Daniel didn’t need any urging, and didn’t waste time mixing the dose in water. Instead, he eased open Charles’s mouth with his thumb and administered the drops directly to his tongue.

  Almost immediately and much to his relief, Daniel noted a distinct change in the doctor’s pallor, his skin growing a healthier pink while his profuse perspiring had ceased. For several moments, it seemed Charles had drifted off to sleep, but then he inhaled and exhaled deeply and opened his eyes to look at Daniel.

  “Thank you, Dr. Grant.”

  Daniel swallowed hard, his jaw clenching. “I’m no longer a doctor.”

  “Then you’re a fool to waste your God-given ability, no matter the loss of your beloved sister. A stillborn child? Hemorrhaging? You would never have been able to save her, Daniel, and neither would a hundred other physicians if faced with the same circumstances, and yet you blame yourself—”

  “Enough!” Daniel rose to his feet, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “The direction of my life is none of your concern!”

  “Perhaps so,” Charles countered quietly, “but my life might have ended today if you hadn’t known what to do. Molly was so exhausted after staying up all night to allow me to rest that she fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow. She wouldn’t have heard my cries for help. I would have collapsed before I reached the cabinet, let alone the vial that I must have left in my coat. Stupid of me.”

  Seeing Charles struggling to sit up, Daniel leaned down to assist him and immediately groaned in pain.

  “So you’re well enough to leave today? From the sound of it, you might have a cracked rib instead of bruised. Let me help you back to bed.”

  Daniel started to protest, but the older man was on his feet before he could utter a word as a sp
asm gripped his rib cage.

  He doubled over, exhaling, and almost before he knew it, he was lying abed and staring up at the doctor, their roles utterly reversed. Charles covered him with a blanket, his expression grown stern.

  “Did you intend to say goodbye to Pearl before you left town? It was plain to all of us that she cares deeply about you to sit by your bedside for hours and never once let go of your hand. She at least deserves your thanks.”

  With that Charles left him, his step slow though his voice sounded stronger as he added over his shoulder, “Stay or go, it’s up to you. You can either face your demons or keep running and let them destroy you. Seems like a straightforward choice to me, Dr. Grant. Get some rest. I’ll be back in a while to check on you.”

  Dr. Grant.

  Daniel stared blindly at the ceiling, unable to deny that helping Charles had felt good and right—and much like a missing piece of his life falling back into place.

  He also couldn’t deny that he cared about Pearl McMaster, too, more than he would have thought possible after knowing her only a few days.

  He’d awoken that morning longing for the fierce tenderness of her hand clasping his and the sweet comfort of her voice—but he was broken, not whole at all! She deserved so much more than a man choking on guilt and self-hatred—

  “Daniel?”

  He looked with a start at the door, Pearl standing inside the entrance to the infirmary as if his very thoughts had conjured her.

  “Lassie, you’ve only a few moments,” he heard Michael McMaster’s voice behind her. “I’ll wait for you outside.”

  “Yes, Grandpa, I promise I won’t be long.” Pearl’s heart raced at seeing Daniel again—his eyes open, his color healthy, though he winced at he started to sit up.

  “No, no, please don’t get up, I’ll come to you!”

  She did, too, her peg leg and cane thudding in opposing rhythm across the floor as she hurried as best she could. His look of surprise at seeing her faded to concern when she drew closer, though she smiled brightly to reassure him, guessing his thoughts.

  “I’m fine, truly. I told you as much last night, don’t you remember?”

  Daniel didn’t answer, staring into her eyes so intently that she blushed, wondering if he could read her mind, too.

  She wasn’t fine, Pearl still so exhausted from everything that had happened that she’d pinched her cheeks for color just before she’d opened the infirmary door. She hoped, too, that the shadows under her eyes might have lightened from the brisk buggy ride over, if only a little.

  “Pearl, you should be at home resting. Mrs. Davis told me that you didn’t leave here until late in the evening—”

  “I had to see you, Daniel, I have such wonderful news! Did Molly tell you about the telegram from Caleb Walker? The lines were repaired much sooner than they imagined!”

  He shook his head, but he didn’t seem interested at all in what she had to say as he gestured at the bed opposite him.

  “Sit down, Pearl, please. I understand Dr. Davis examined you last night and everything looked all right, but you need to take care not to overdo.”

  “Now you sound like my grandparents,” Pearl said with a sigh, though she obliged him and carefully seated herself. “That’s why I don’t have long to speak with you! They only agreed for Grandpa to bring me here if I didn’t stay long and headed straight home to bed. Oh, Daniel, Mr. Walker is going to set everything right as soon as he returns to town next week!”

  She saw a flicker of emotion cross his face, but she couldn’t name it and rushed on. “He said you must be released at once from jail—”

  “Jedidiah Hobbs and his men already saw to that, thanks to Sheriff Braun.”

  “I know,” Pearl said softly, the excitement she’d felt to share her news with him fading as she remembered all too well the horror of those moments. “That order came too late, but not what he said after, Daniel, all charges have been dropped. He also told Jedidiah to stand down or there would be hell to pay, and that he’d deal with him and the sheriff when he got back. Mr. Walker owns most of this town! They won’t dare to trouble you any further.”

  Again some emotion flashed across Daniel’s face, and she could see in spite of his dark beard that his jaw had tightened as if in anger. Yet what was he supposed to feel after being kicked and punched and nearly dragged to his death if Mayor Logan hadn’t intervened?

  “I’m so sorry I couldn’t bring you those keys in time,” she murmured, a lump gathering in her throat. “It might have spared you this,”—she glanced around the infirmary—“and spared me from feeling so useless. I said I would help you and I only let you down.”

  “You’ve never let me down, Pearl,” he said quietly, staring at her again as his brown eyes seemed to darken. “You’re sincere and honest and you deserve the same from me. I’m not proud of it, but I asked you to come back to the jail because I hoped you would help me escape. I knew the keys hung just inside Sheriff Braun’s door. I had planned to somehow distract the deputy—”

  “That’s why you asked me to come back?” Pearl echoed, a terrible realization overwhelming her as she remembered the butterflies in her stomach at the thought of seeing him again.

  She’d imagined that he simply wanted to see her again, too. She had even gone so far as to think if he found something—or someone—he especially liked about Walker Creek that he might even consider staying here and settling down…

  Peg-leg Pearl, Peg-leg Pearl! A shame her pretty face is wasted on a one-legged girl!

  “I have to go,” she blurted, rising so abruptly with tears smarting her eyes that she dropped her cane with a clatter to the floor. As Daniel rolled over with a grimace to pick it up for her, she quickly wiped the offending moisture away before he could notice and took the cane from him. “I’m sorry, I promised my grandfather I wouldn’t stay long. I just wanted you to know about the telegram—goodbye!”

  She hobbled away from him without another word, biting her lower lip to keep the tears at bay as her grandfather came to the door.

  “Pearl?”

  “I’m here, Grandpa!” She lowered her head and brushed past him, so sick at heart that she’d succumbed to such foolish, romantic notions about Daniel that she feared she might become ill.

  Of course the only reason he’d wanted her to visit him was to help him escape!

  Her grandfather had warned her about drifters from the very start, telling her to have a care.

  Her grandmother had told her to guard her heart, but had she listened?

  All those ridiculous butterflies and talk of falling in love and Daniel reaching between the bars to grasp her hand—Lord help her, she’d never felt so wretched in all her life!

  “I hope yours is a swift recovery, Mr. Grant!” she heard her grandfather call out behind her. “Margaret and I look forward to you sharing supper with us soon, and I’m sure Pearl as well. A good day to you!”

  “Oh, Grandpa, no,” she said shakily under her breath, wiping fresh tears from her eyes as he walked out to the street where she waited for him by the buggy.

  “He’s a strong one to survive what he did, but he’s hurting for sure. I think he was coming after you to say something, Pearl, but he doubled over before he got to the door. Poor fellow.”

  Her grandfather didn’t seem to expect a reply as he helped her into the buggy and then climbed up on the seat beside her, though he cast her a concerned glance.

  “Are you all right, lassie?”

  She nodded, somehow mustering an answer as he clucked his tongue at the big bay pulling their buggy. “Just tired, Grandpa, so tired. Take me home.”

  Chapter 7

  “Mrs. McMaster, you’ve outdone yourself this year!” enthused a pretty young woman who gathered up an oblong box tied with string from the counter. “My green velvet gown is sure to turn heads at the Christmas ball—and I hope one of them is Walker Creek’s new doctor!”

  “Oh, no, Anna, he’ll be paying court to me!” coun
tered her dimpled and equally lovely companion as she picked up her own dress box. “Thank you, Mrs. McMaster, Pearl. Thank you!”

  Pearl gave a small nod as the two left the shop. She didn’t feel at all like smiling after hearing them echo what she’d heard all week from every marriageable woman who’d come through the door.

  Daniel was the talk of the town since he’d accepted an offer to join Dr. Davis’s medical practice, an arrangement wholeheartedly seconded by Caleb Walker shortly after his return last Saturday.

  The most excited about the news were the mothers of eligible daughters as they, too, had come to collect their dresses, the Christmas ball at the Frederick Hotel one of the most anticipated events of the year. Pearl’s thoughts whirled from all the gossip—most of it centered upon Dr. Daniel Grant.

  It seemed his elevation from drifter to physician had made everyone forget what had transpired almost two weeks ago when he’d been thrown into jail, and the horror of a few days later when Mayor Logan had thankfully intervened to save his life.

  “He’s so tall and handsome—the perfect match for Amaryllis!” had gushed one mother. “I saw him yesterday having lunch at the hotel restaurant with the mayor, oh, yes, so handsome!”

  “I hear Mr. Walker rented him a fine house not far from the Davises so he’ll be close to the infirmary—and it’s already furnished! All he needs is a bride to make it a home. I can’t wait for him to meet my Susanna at the dance!”

  “I saw him at the mercantile trying on a new coat that made him look quite distinguished, just as a doctor should. I nearly had to drag Winnifred from the store, she was so agog!”

  On and on the chatter had gone, but the news Pearl had been grateful to hear no matter she still felt miserable about the last time she’d seen Daniel, had come last Sunday. She remembered the conversation like it was yesterday…

  “Dr. Grant asked about you after church, lassie,” her grandfather had told her when she’d joined her grandparents in the kitchen for lunch.